Economic education
Smyrna High team wins Delaware Personal Finance Challenge
9:49 a.m., April 29, 2013--A record number of Delaware high school students faced off in the fifth annual Delaware Personal Finance Challenge held recently on the University of Delaware campus in Newark, where they competed against peers in a test of their knowledge of savings, investing, credit, risk and money management.
Participation in the online round of the challenge increased from eight teachers from six schools last year to 17 teachers from 10 schools this year, while the total number of students participating in the state challenge more than doubled to 682 from last year’s 263 participants.
Honors Stories
National Medal of Science
Warren Award
“We’re thrilled with the increase in student and teacher participation this year and we also continue to see much more competitive scores between the schools which is fantastic,” said Barbara Emery, who coordinated the competition and works in UD’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE).
For the last five years, Bank of America has been a sponsor for the competition, represented by Connie Montaña, vice president for corporate responsibility, along with 12 Bank of America volunteers who supported the student teams, scoring, trivia round and quiz bowl.
To compete, students must be enrolled in one of two courses that teach personal finance knowledge and skills. During the challenge they then take three written tests focused on income, money management, spending, credit, savings and investing. The two teams with the highest scores win the right to square off in a quiz bowl for the championship.
Taking first place in the quiz bowl and reversing last year’s results were sophomores Leandra Gantzer, Andrew Morrison, Cole Newport and Hunter Pritt of Smyrna High School led by teacher Mario Tiberi.
This top placement earned the Smyrna High School students and their teacher a school trophy, $1,000 each plus an all expense paid trip to St. Louis for the National Challenge.
Placing second were students Megan Barnett, Nicole Gawel, Megan Lantz and Shelby Schwing from Cab Calloway School of the Arts led by teacher Ed Killheffer. The team took home a school trophy plus $500 each.
In addition to sponsorship by Bank of America and UD’s CEEE, the Delaware Personal Finance Challenge is sponsored by the Delaware Council on Economic Education and receives national funding from the Calvin K. Kazankian Foundation and the Nebraska Council on Economic Education.
Article by Kathryn Meier
Photos by Ambre Alexander